Authentication Using Vehicle Data Pairing

ABSTRACT

Various examples are disclosed of how to leverage technology in a vehicle to provide various services in a convenient manner. For example, the pairing of the portable device with the on-board computer of the vehicle may be utilized as a level of authorization to provide certain services in a more automated and/or convenient way to the vehicle driver or other occupant of the vehicle, such as by authenticating wireless transactions with entities external to the vehicle using device pairing technology, and by modifying vehicle navigation routes to include suggested nearby points of interest that may be determined to be of particular value to a vehicle occupant.

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/636,200, filed Apr. 20, 2012, entitled,“Data-Connected Vehicle,” hereby incorporated by reference as to itsentirety.

BACKGROUND

Many new vehicles, such as cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, and buses, are morecommonly being equipped with data communication capabilities. Forexample, it is not unusual for a new vehicle to include wireless (e.g.,BLUETOOTH) connectivity with portable devices such as smart phones, aswell as GPS navigation including a computer and display. These devicesmay be built in to the vehicle (e.g., at the factory, and may include adashboard display) or may be installed by the vehicle owner using anaftermarket device coupled to the vehicle. In some cases, the portabledevice may wirelessly interact with the computer and display. Forinstance, a call may be initiated and/or answered by interacting withthe display and/or via a voice command.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not anextensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identifykey or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope ofthe disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts ofthe disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the descriptionbelow.

It may be desirable to leverage such technology in a vehicle to providevarious services in a convenient manner. For example, the pairing of theportable device with the on-board computer of the vehicle may beutilized as a level of authorization to provide certain services in amore automated and/or convenient way to the vehicle driver or otheroccupant of the vehicle.

As another example, a method, device, software, and/or a system mayprovide at least the following functionality: electronically pairing aportable electronic device with an on-board computer of a vehicle;wirelessly conducting a transaction between (1) one or both of theon-board computer and the portable electronic device and (2) anothercomputing device, wherein said another computing device is locatedexternal to the vehicle; and authenticating the transaction by sendingthe another computing device authentication information associated withthe pairing of the portable electronic device with the on-boardcomputer.

As yet another example, a method, device, software, and/or a system mayprovide at least the following functionality: electronically pairing theportable electronic device with an on-board computer of a vehicle;wirelessly conducting a transaction between the portable electronicdevice and another computing device, wherein said another computingdevice is located external to the vehicle; and authenticating thetransaction by sending the another computing device authenticationinformation associated with the pairing of the portable electronicdevice with the on-board computer.

As still another example, a method, device, software, and/or a systemmay provide at least the following functionality: electronically pairingthe portable electronic device with an on-board computer of a vehicle;wirelessly conducting a transaction between the portable electronicdevice and another computing device, wherein said another computingdevice is located external to the vehicle; and authenticating thetransaction by sending the another computing device authenticationinformation associated with the pairing of the portable electronicdevice with the on-board computer.

As yet another example, a method, device, software, and/or a system mayprovide at least the following functionality: wirelessly receiving, byat least one computing device, an indication of a first navigation routeof a vehicle from an origin to a destination; determining, by the atleast one computing device, a proximity of each of a plurality ofpredetermined points of interest to the first navigation route, andbased on the proximities, determining a first one of the points ofinterest; and wirelessly sending an indication of the determined firstone of the points of interest.

As yet even another example, a method, device, software, and/or a systemmay provide at least the following functionality: determining, by atleast one computing device, a first navigation route of a vehicle froman origin to a destination; wirelessly sending, by the at least onecomputing device, an indication of the first navigation route;wirelessly receiving, by the at least one computing device, anindication of a point of interest based on the navigation route; andmodifying, by the at least one computing device, the first navigationroute to generate a second navigation route from the origin to thedestination that includes the point of interest.

As a still further example, a method, device, software, and/or a systemmay provide at least the following functionality: determining, by atleast one computing device, a first navigation route of a vehicle froman origin to a destination; determining, by the at least one computingdevice, a proximity of each of a plurality of predetermined points ofinterest to the first navigation route, and based on the proximities,determining a first one of the points of interest; and modifying, by theat least one computing device, the first navigation route to generate asecond navigation route from the origin to the destination that includesthe point of interest.

These and other aspects of the disclosure will be apparent uponconsideration of the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present disclosure and thepotential advantages of various aspects described herein may be acquiredby referring to the following description in consideration of theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate likefeatures, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an example view of a vehicle dashboard;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example vehicle including a vehiclecomputer;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example computing device that may beused to embody any elements described herein and illustrated in thedrawings;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example interaction between apaired portable device and/or vehicle computer with a retailer;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example interaction between apaired portable device and/or vehicle computer with a service provider;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating example steps that may be performedto allow transactions to occur using the paired portable device and/orvehicle computer; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating example steps that may be performedto allow navigation routes to be modified.

It is noted that one or more of the drawings may not necessarily bedrawn to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an example view of a dashboard of a vehicle 101. In thisexample, the dashboard includes a display 102. Such a display 102 isoften included in vehicles today and used for such functions asnavigation, climate control, radio control, and telephone call control.The display 102 is controlled by an on-board vehicle computer that istypically hidden from the view of vehicle occupants, such as behind thedashboard, underneath the seats, in the engine compartment, and/or inthe trunk. The display 102 may be a touch screen display or a non-touchsensitive display, and may be of any size and shape.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the vehicle 101 including the display102 and an on-board vehicle computer 201 (such as mentioned above). Thelocations of the blocks in FIG. 2 is not intended to necessarily be theactual physical locations within the vehicle 101 of the physical unitsembodying those blocks. Also shown in the vehicle 101 is a portabledevice 202, which may be in the possession of an occupant of the vehicle101, such as the driver or a passenger. The portable device 202 may beany electronic device that is sufficiently portable for theabove-mentioned occupant to carry on his or her person when leaving andentering the vehicle 101, and that has wireless communicationcapability. For example, the portable device 202 may be a cellulartelephone (such as a smartphone), a laptop computer, a tablet computer,a personal digital assistant, an electronic vehicle ignition key, or thelike. The portable device 202 may be configured to wirelesslycommunicate with the vehicle computer 201, such as via BLUETOOTH,near-field communication (NFC), wi-fi, or other radio frequencycommunication; infrared light; and/or via any other wirelesscommunication technology.

It is not unusual for a vehicle computer and a cellular phone or otherportable device to have the capability to wirelessly pair, or bond, witheach other. For instance, it is typical that a smartphone and a vehiclecomputer may initially pair with each other by creating a link key (orother shared secret) and/or other identifying information with eachother via BLUETOOTH in order to establish a pairing. If the same linkkey is stored in both devices, then the two devices are consideredpaired. And, once the pairing has been established, the two devices maycommunicate with each other in an encrypted manner using the link key.Once the pairing is established, the two devices (the smartphone and thevehicle computer) will usually automatically re-establish the pairingwhenever the two devices are physically separated and then physicallybrought back together within a sufficient proximity of each other. Fortypical automobile BLUETOOTH communications, for example, the twodevices are usually sufficiently proximate to each other if they arewithin about 5 meters. However, this range may vary depending upon thepower used and other factors. Thus, for example, when the smartphone isnear or inside the vehicle and both devices (the smartphone and thevehicle computer) are powered on and utilizing wireless communication,then the two devices may automatically pair with each other after theinitial pairing has been established as discussed above.

As will be discussed further below, the pairing of the portable device103 with the vehicle computer 201 may be considered a level ofestablished authentication that may be used as a basis of trust toperform various transactions external to the portable device 103 andvehicle computer 201 pair. For example, transactions via the portabledevice 103 and/or the vehicle computer 201 with a third party (such as aservice provider or a retailer) may inherently be provided with acertain level of trust due to the fact that the two devices are pairedwith each other. A reason that this may induce a level of trust isbecause it may have already been established that both devices areassociated with a particular user, and therefore if both devices arecurrently paired with each other at the time that the transaction ismade, then it may be assumed that it is more likely that the transactionis legitimately being invoked or responded to by the appropriate user ascompared with only one of the unpaired devices (which may have beenstolen, for example) being involved in the transaction. Another way tolook at this is that the portable device 202 may be considered asecurity token for the vehicle computer 201, or that the vehiclecomputer 201 may be considered a security token for the portable device202: the presence of one of the devices being proximate to the other ofthe devices provides a certain level of reassurance that both devicesare likely in the possession of the appropriate user at the time of thetransaction.

While the portable device 202 has been previously described asincluding, for example, a smartphone, a smart automobile ignition key, atablet computer, and the like, in further examples, the portable device202 may be a dedicated device that primarily serves the purpose of asecurity token, without necessarily providing other functionality suchas the ability to surf the web or make telephone calls. Moreover, whileprevious examples of pairing the portable device 202 with the vehiclecomputer 201 has been via wireless pairing, wired pairing mayalternatively be used. For example, the portable device 202 may be aflash memory USB stick that is plugged into a USB slot in the vehicleand that contains certain pairing information such as a shared secretwith the vehicle computer 201 to establish the pairing.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example computing device 300 that may beused to partially or fully embody any or all of the vehicle computer201, the portable device 202, a retailer communication device 402 (FIG.4), and one or more computing devices of a service provider 501 (FIG.5). The computing device 300 may include hardware that may operate by,e.g., executing software to perform specific functions. The software, ifany, may be stored on a tangible and/or non-transitory computer-readablemedium 302 or other type of computer-readable data storage device in theform of computer-readable instructions. The computing device 300 mayread those computer-readable instructions, and in response performvarious steps as defined by those computer-readable instructions. Thus,any functions, steps, calculations, determinations discussed herein maybe implemented by the computing device 300, such as by reading andexecuting computer-readable instructions for performing those functions,and/or by any hardware subsystem (e.g., a processor 301) from which thecomputing device 300 is composed. Additionally or alternatively, any ofthe above-mentioned functions may be implemented by the hardware ofcomputing device 300, with or without the execution of software. Forexample, the computing device 300 may be or include one or moremicroprocessors, central processing units (CPUs), and/or other types ofcircuitry configured to perform some or all of the functions attributedto computing device 300. In such embodiments, the processor 301 may beimplemented as or otherwise include the one or more microprocessors,CPUs, ASICs, and/or other types of circuitry.

A computing device may include any electronic, electro-optical, and/ormechanical device, or system of multiple physically separate orintegrated such devices, that is able to process and manipulateinformation, such as in the form of data. Non-limiting examples of acomputing device include one or more personal computers (e.g., desktop,tablet, or laptop), mainframes, servers, cellular phones (which may be“smart phones”), personal digital assistants, and/or a system of thesein any combination or sub-combination. In addition, a given computingdevice may be physically located completely in one location or may bedistributed amongst a plurality of locations (i.e., may implementdistributive computing). A computing device may be or otherwise includea general-purpose computing device and/or a dedicated computing deviceconfigured to perform only certain limited functions.

The computer-readable medium 302 may include not only a single tangibleand/or non-transitory medium or single type of such medium, but also acombination of one or more such media and/or types of such media.Examples of embodiments of the computer-readable medium 302 include, butare not limited to, one or more memories, hard drives, optical discs(such as CDs or DVDs), magnetic discs, magnetic tape drives, and othertypes of computer-readable data storage devices. The computer-readablemedium 302 may be physically part of, or otherwise accessible by, thecomputing device 300, and may store the above-mentionedcomputer-readable instructions (e.g., software) and/or computer-readabledata (i.e., information that may or may not be executable).

The computing device 300 may also include a user input/output interface303 for receiving input from a user (e.g., via a keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, an audio microphone, camera, and/or remote control) and/or forproviding output to the user (e.g., via a touch screen or other displaydevice, an audio speaker or piezoelectric element, an indicator light, aprinter, etc.). For example, where the computing device 300 is part ofthe vehicle computer 201, the user input/output interface 303 mayinclude the display 102.

The computing device 300 may further include a communicationinput/output interface 304 for communicating with other devices via wireand/or wirelessly. Such communication with other devices may be director it may be indirect via a wired and/or wireless network. For example,where the computing device 300 is part of the portable device 202, thecommunication input/output interface 304 may include a cellularcommunication system for communicating via a cellular telephone networkwith, e.g., the service provider 501 and/or the retailer 401, aBLUETOOTH wireless interface, and/or a near-field communication (NFC)wireless interface (the latter two potentially for communicating withthe vehicle computer 201 and/or with the retailer communication device402. Where the computing device 300 is part of the vehicle computer 201,the communication input/output interface 304 may include a cellularcommunication system for communicating via the cellular telephonenetwork with, e.g., the service provider 501 and/or a retailer 401, aBLUETOOTH wireless interface, and/or an NFC wireless interface (thelatter two potentially for communicating with the portable device 202and/or with the retailer communication device 402.

Where the computing device 300 is part of the portable device 302 or thevehicle computer 201, the computing device 300 may further include aglobal positioning system (GPS) unit 305. The GPS unit 305 may provideinformation as to the physical location of the computing device 300. TheGPS unit 305 may include a GPS antenna and/or a GPS processor. Thecomputing device 300 may additionally or alternatively determine itsposition based on other information, such as by triangulating therelative signals strengths of nearby wi-fi networks and/or of cellulartower signals.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example interaction between apaired portable device and/or vehicle computer with a third partyexternal to the vehicle 101, in this case a retailer 401. The retailermay be, for example, a business such as a fast-food restaurant with adrive-through window. The occupant of the vehicle 101 may drive to alocation within wireless communication of the retailer communicationdevice 402 (such as next to the drive-through window) and wirelesslyconduct a transaction with the retailer 401. The wireless transactionmay involve wireless communication between the portable device 202 andthe retailer communication device 402, between the vehicle computer 201and the retailer communication device 402, and/or between the portabledevice 202 and the vehicle computer 201. The fact that the portabledevice 202 and the vehicle computer 201 are paired at the time that thetransaction is made may (as discussed above) provide a level of trust tothe retailer that the purchaser (the vehicle occupant) is who he or sheclaims to be. Information communicated between any of the devices duringthe transaction may include, for example, information identifying theoccupant of the vehicle 101 associated with the paired devices,information about the transaction requested (e.g., identifying theproduct or service purchased or rented, a monetary amount of thetransaction, a time and/or date of the transaction, the parties and/ortheir locations involved in the transaction, etc.), information aboutthe result of the transaction (e.g., successful, failed, rejected, sold,rented, canceled, returned, etc.), evidence of the pairing between theportable device 202 and the vehicle computer 201, and the like.

Where the retailer 401 is a fast-food restaurant, the transaction mayinvolve, for example, ordering and/or payment of food at a drive-throughwindow of the restaurant. For example, the driver of the vehicle 101 maydrive the car near the restaurant, and in response the retailercommunication device 402 may wirelessly transmit the menu to the vehiclecomputer 201 for display on the display 102. Alternatively, the vehiclecomputer 201 may already have a stored version of the menu and may bringit up responsive to detecting that the vehicle 101 is near therestaurant. An occupant of the vehicle 101 may, in response, select fromthe menu, such as via a voice or touch screen interaction. The selectionmay be wirelessly transmitted by the vehicle computer 201 or theportable device 202 to the retailer communication device 402. Theretailer 401 may, in response, begin preparing the selected food andrequest payment. A payment request may be wirelessly transmitted to thevehicle computer 201 or the portable device 202, and the occupant of thevehicle 101 may confirm authorization of payment. In response, thevehicle computer 201 or the portable device 202 may wirelessly contactthe occupant's financial institution (e.g., bank) and indicate that theappropriate payment should being made. Or, the retailer may wirelesslycontact the financial institution to invoke the payment. Payment may be,e.g., directly from a savings or checking account, or via a credit cardmanaged by the financial institution. Any or all of this transaction maypotentially be performed without the need for the vehicle occupant tomanually provide a password, PIN, or other secret. This is because thefact that the portable device 202 and the vehicle computer 201 may bepaired at the time the transaction is made, and that evidence of thispairing may be provided to the retailer 401 and/or to the financialinstitution as reassurance that the transaction involves the appropriateparty in possession of the portable device 202 and the vehicle computer201. In these and other examples, wireless communication with theretailer communication device 402 may be via a close-range wirelessconnection, if desired, such as via a near-field communication (NFC)card, or via BLUETOOTH, or the like. This may be desirable as the meredetection of the presence of the vehicle 101 by the retailercommunication device 402 may be sufficient for the retailercommunication device 402 to perform a handshake protocol or perform someother transaction with the portable device 202 and/or the vehiclecomputer 201. However, the wireless communication with the retailercommunication device 402 may be via any wireless technology.

The retailer 401 may be other types of businesses or otherorganizations, regardless of whether they are private or governmental,or whether they make money or not, such as banks or other financialinstitutions, car washes, movie theaters, parking lots or parkinggarages, gas stations, car mechanic garages, toll booths, and securitygates. For instance, where the retailer 401 is a bank or other financialinstitution, the pairing of the vehicle computer 201 and the portabledevice 202 may allow the vehicle occupant to conduct certain bankingtransactions (e.g., check balance, check credit, etc.) withoutnecessarily needing to enter authorizing information such as a passwordor PIN, as long as the two devices are paired while the transaction isinitiated and/or being conducted. Where the retailer 401 is a car wash,movie theater, parking lot or parking garage, gas station, car mechanicgarage, toll booth, or security gate, payment and/or passage into arestricted or pay-per-use area may be automatically granted uponwireless communication by the retailer 401 with the paired devices inthe vehicle 101. In still a further example, homes for sale may havewireless communication devices installed on or near their properties,and so house-hunters driving down a street may be automatically notified(e.g., via the display 102) of whether a home they pass is being offeredfor sale. Moreover, because a level of trust may be automaticallyestablished by virtue of the pairing of the portable device 202 and thevehicle computer 201, the financial information of the vehicle occupantmay be automatically obtained (e.g., from the occupant's financialinstitution account and/or stored profile information) and compared withthe home information so that the vehicle occupant may be automaticallynotified (e.g., via the display 102) of whether the vehicle occupant maybe financially qualified to purchase the home and/or what the mortgagepayments would likely be. A similar process may be performed withrespect to driving near offered apartment or home rentals.

Examples of further types of transactions may be, for example,performing mobile office transactions, such as accessing email,intranet, shared documents, and the like. These functions may bedisplayed via, e.g., the display 102, and may also be at least partiallyauthenticated using the fact that the portable device 202 and thevehicle computer 201 are paired together.

Thus, in general, it can be seen that the pairing of the vehiclecomputer 201 with the portable device 202, both of which may beregistered or otherwise associated with the vehicle occupant, may beused as a level of trust to provide at least partial (and potentiallyfull) authentication for performing certain transactions, such that thetransactions may not require any other authorization or may require lessauthorization. This may make such transactions and other services workmore automatically and conveniently for the vehicle occupant.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example interaction between apaired portable device (such as the portable device 202) and/or avehicle computer (such as the vehicle computer 201) with the serviceprovider 501. The service provider 501 may be any type of serviceprovider such as but not limited to the above-mentioned bank or otherfinancial institution, a cellular communications service provider, anemail provider, an Internet service provider (ISP), and/or a multimediacontent provider. The service provider 501 may manage an account of theoccupant of the vehicle 101, and with it, a profile of the occupant. Theprofile may include information such as the occupant's name, address,telephone numbers, bank account numbers, identification number, driver'slicense number, preferences, etc. Where profile information is neededfor a transaction, the service provider 501 may provide this informationwirelessly to the vehicle computer 201, the portable device 202, and/orthe retailer 401. The information may be provided spontaneously or onrequest from one of the parties involved in the transaction. Forexample, where payment is requested by the retailer 401, the serviceprovider 501 may act as a middle-man to the payment transaction and workwith the financial institution and the retailer 401 to ensure that thepayment transaction is successful.

The service provider 501 may additionally or alternatively providevarious other services, such as navigation-related services. Forexample, where a navigation route is selected at the vehicle 101 (e.g.,via the GPS functionality of the vehicle computer 201), informationidentifying the route and/or the destination may be wirelesslytransmitted by the vehicle computer 201 or the portable device 202 tothe service provider 501. The service provider 501 may use thisinformation to provide certain services to the vehicle occupant and/orto other parties such as the retailer 401.

An example of such a service may operate as follows. Responsive to thevehicle occupant selecting the navigation route, the vehicle computer201 or the portable device 202 may wirelessly transmit the information(e.g., via a cellular network) identifying the navigation route and/orthe navigation destination to the service provider 501. This may be doneregardless of whether the vehicle computer 201 or the portable device202 are paired with each other. In response to the received information,the service provider 501 may determine whether there are anypredetermined points of interest (POIs) that are proximate to thenavigation route. Proximity may be measured using any distancemeasurement such as by extending a virtual region orthogonally from thenavigation route by a predetermined distance (e.g., five miles) or by adistance that may depend upon the expected speed of the vehicle at agiven point in the navigation route, and/or that may depend upon theroad type in the navigation route, and/or that may depend upon the typeof POI. The POIs may also be selected based on one or more otherfactors, such as based on a stored profile of interests of the vehicleoccupant, or based on further commands/requests by the vehicle occupant,such as request (e.g., via voice command or touch screen input) to finda particular type of POI such as a specialty store or an ATM. Which POIsare selected by the service provider 501 may also depend upon the statusof the POIs. For example, if the vehicle occupant is looking for an ATMnear the navigation route, the service provider 501 may exclude ATMsthat currently have a known long queue line. Or if the vehicle occupantis looking for a particular type of store, the service provider 501 mayexclude those store locations known to be currently closed (or known tobe closed at a time at which the vehicle 101 is predicted to be in thevicinity of the store). Further factors that may be taken into accountby the service provider 501 as to whether to select a particular POI mayinclude current or predicted vehicular traffic near the POI, weatherconditions between the vehicle and the POI, and the like, how muchgasoline is remaining in the vehicle 101 (e.g., the range of the vehicle101), time of day, day of week, speed of the vehicle, direction oftravel of the vehicle, and the like.

The POIs may be any types of POIs, such as but not limited to stores,restaurants, gas stations, banking centers, ATMs, homes for sale,mechanics, or the like. As an example, if the vehicle 101 is scheduledto follow a navigation route that takes the vehicle 101 on a particularroad, the service provider 501 may determine that a particular POIproximate to the road would likely be interesting to the vehicleoccupant, and so the service provider 501 may send information to thevehicle computer 201 or the portable device 202 identifying the POIand/or suggesting a modification to the navigation route that directsthe vehicle to pass by and/or stop at the POI. The vehicle occupant maybe notified of the suggestion (e.g., via the display 102) and may chooseto accept or reject the suggestion. If the suggestion is accepted, thenthe navigation route may be automatically modified by the vehiclecomputer 201 or the portable device 202.

Other services that may be provided by the service provider 501 mayinclude providing offers and deals (e.g., coupons, including groupcoupons) to the vehicle occupant, where the particular offers and dealsmay depend upon the navigation route (e.g., offers and deals relating toPOIs that are proximate to the navigation route). Thus, the vehicleoccupant may be automatically provided with an offer or deal (e.g., viathe display 102) for a POI that may not be at the current location ofthe vehicle 101, but that is near the navigation route and thus is at alocation near where the vehicle 101 is scheduled or otherwise expectedto be in the future. Where the coupon is a group coupon, this maypotentially widen the population to which the coupon may be offered to agroup over a much larger geographical area, and thus may increase thechance of the coupon reaching a minimum group population to becomevalid. And, because not all offerees may be at the geographical locationof the POI associated with the offer or deal when the offer or deal ismade, this may allow a more transient group of people to be included inthe offer or deal (e.g., travelers passing through an area but notliving there). This may allow group coupons to be more practical insmaller populated areas, whereas currently such group coupons may onlywork effectively in larger cities.

The POIs may be stored on a computer-readable medium (e.g., in the formof a database) of the service provider 501, along with the locations,offers, and deals associated with the POIs. The above-mentioned servicesmay entice businesses (such as the POIs mentioned above) to work withthe service provider 501 in order to be included in the database. Thus,POIs may be motivated to have an account with the service provider 501that would allow (e.g., for a fee charged by the service provider 501)the POIs and/or their deals and offers the opportunity to be suggestedto vehicle occupants in the manner described above.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating example steps that may be performedto allow transactions to occur using a paired portable device (such asthe portable device 202) and/or an on-board vehicle computer (such asthe vehicle computer 201). In this example, a transaction may beperformed in a manner such as previously described, using the pairing asat least partial authentication for the transaction. At step 601, theportable device 202 and the vehicle computer 201 are paired, such as ina manner previously described. At step 602, an occupant of the vehiclerequests a particular transaction (e.g., to purchase a good or service)via the portable device 202 and/or via the vehicle computer 201. Therequest may be made, for example, by manual entry on a keypad ortouch-screen (such as the display 102), or by a voice command.Alternatively, the mere fact that the vehicle 101 has entered aparticular location may be sufficient to initiate or otherwise requestthe transaction.

At step 603, the pairing of the portable device 202 and vehicle computer201 may be used to partially or fully authenticate the transaction. Todo so, authentication information unique to the pairing may bewirelessly provided to the transacting party and/or to the serviceprovider 501. Such authentication information may include, for example,an identifier unique to the combination of the portable device 202 andthe vehicle computer 201. The authentication information may bepredetermined, such as during the first time that the portable device202 and the vehicle computer 201 are paired together (the initialpairing), and/or the authentication information may be dynamicallydetermined such as at the time of each pairing. The authenticationinformation may be generated by the portable device 202 and/or thevehicle computer 201, and may be generated based on, e.g., uniqueinformation provided by each of the two devices 201, 202. For example,if the portable device 202 has a first unique identifier (e.g., aproduct serial number or ESN) and the vehicle computer 201 has a secondunique identifier (e.g., a VIN of the vehicle containing the vehiclecomputer 201, a product serial number, or an ESN), then theauthentication information associated with the pairing may be generatedbased on a combination of the two unique identifiers. The authenticationinformation may be compared with predetermined information stored by,e.g., the service provider 501, for authentication. To allow theauthentication information received from the portable device 202 and/orthe vehicle computer 201 to be authenticated by the service provider 501side, the authentication information may be provided to the serviceprovider 501 during an earlier transaction, such as during the initialpairing. Alternatively, other information from which the serviceprovider 501 may derived the authentication information may be providedto the service provider 501.

As yet another example, one or both of the portable device 202 and/orthe vehicle computer 201 may wirelessly provide some other type ofreassurance to the service provider 501 or the transacting party whenthe two devices are paired. In any event, once the transaction isauthenticated (and in addition to any further authentication that may beneeded depending upon the transaction), at step 604 the service provider501 may wirelessly send relevant information to the portable device 202,the vehicle computer 201, and/or the transacting party involved in thetransaction, depending upon the nature of the transaction. Theinformation provided by the service provider 501 may be informationrequested by the vehicle occupant and/or information requested by thetransacting party.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating example steps that may be performedto allow navigation routes to be modified, such as in a mannerpreviously described herein. As previously mentioned, this process maybe performed regardless of whether the portable device 202 and thevehicle computer 201 are paired with each other, as authentication usingthe pairing may not be needed or desired. At step 701, the vehicleoccupant may initiate a navigation route via the portable device 202and/or via the vehicle computer 201. At step 702, the portable device202 and/or the vehicle computer 201 may wirelessly send information tothe service provider 501 indicating the selected navigation route and/orthe navigation destination. Such information may be sent to the serviceprovider 501 all at once, such as prior to the vehicle physicallynavigating/driving the navigation route, or the information may be sentat multiple times, in real time, during the driving of the navigationroute. For example, the information may be sent intermittently at randomor periodic intervals, at each turn dictated by the navigation route, ateach point of interest already on the navigation route, and/or at anyother features of the navigation route. In the latter case, theinformation may include only a portion of the navigation route, such asthe portion remaining, and/or may indicate the current actual orscheduled/predicted location, speed, and/or direction of the vehicle.Based on this received information, at step 703 the service provider 501may determine one or more relevant POIs based on their proximity to thenavigation route (such as in a manner previously described) andwirelessly return information back to the portable device 202 and/or thevehicle computer 201 indicating the POIs and/or one or more suggestionsfor modifying the navigation route to take the vehicle near or at thePOIs.

At step 704, the portable device 202 and/or the vehicle computer 201 mayindicate (e.g., via the display 102) to the vehicle occupant thesuggested POIs and/or navigation route modifications. The indication ofeach suggestion may be performed all at once, such as prior to actualnavigation of the navigation route, and/or or the indications may beprovided at various different times during navigation of the navigationroute, such as when it is detected that the vehicle is within a certaindistance of the point of interest to be suggested. At step 705, thevehicle occupant may indicate acceptance or rejection of the suggestions(e.g., via manual input and/or voice command). At step 706, if thesuggestion(s) is/are accepted, then the portable device 202 and/or thevehicle computer 201 may modify the navigation route accordingly, andmay further wirelessly notify the service provider 501 of the acceptanceand/or the modifications to the navigation route. At step 707, if thesuggestion(s) is/are rejected, then the navigation route may not bemodified, and the service provider 501 may also be notified of therejection.

Various aspects described herein may be embodied as a method, anapparatus, or as computer-executable instructions stored on one or morenon-transitory and/or tangible computer-readable media. Accordingly,those aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment (which may or may not include firmware)stored on one or more non-transitory and/or tangible computer-readablemedia, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Anyand/or all of the method steps described herein may be embodied incomputer-executable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium,such as a non-transitory and/or tangible computer readable medium and/ora computer readable storage medium. Additionally or alternatively, anyand/or all of the method steps described herein may be embodied incomputer-readable instructions stored in the memory and/or othernon-transitory and/or tangible storage medium of an apparatus thatincludes one or more processors, such that the apparatus is caused toperform such method steps when the one or more processors execute thecomputer-readable instructions. In addition, various signalsrepresenting data or events as described herein may be transferredbetween a source and a destination in the form of light and/orelectromagnetic waves traveling through signal-conducting media such asmetal wires, optical fibers, and/or wireless transmission media (e.g.,air and/or space).

Aspects of the disclosure have been described in terms of illustrativeembodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications, andvariations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occurto persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of thisdisclosure. For example, one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the steps illustrated in the illustrative figures may beperformed in other than the recited order, and that one or more stepsillustrated may be optional in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure.

1. A method, comprising: electronically pairing a portable electronicdevice with an on-board computer of a vehicle; wirelessly conducting atransaction between (1) one or both of the on-board computer and theportable electronic device and (2) another computing device, whereinsaid another computing device is located external to the vehicle; andauthenticating the transaction by sending the another computing deviceauthentication information associated with the pairing of the portableelectronic device with the on-board computer.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein said electronically pairing comprises wirelessly pairing theportable electronic device with the on-board computer.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said wirelessly conducting the transaction compriseswirelessly conducting the transaction between the on-board computer andsaid another computing device.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein saidwirelessly conducting the transaction comprises wirelessly conductingthe transaction between the portable electronic device and said anothercomputing device.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisinggenerating the authentication information based on information providedby each of the portable electronic device and the on-board computer. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein said wirelessly conducting thetransaction comprises conducting the transaction with said anothercomputing device using a near-field communication (NFC) wirelessinterface.
 7. A computer-readable data storage device storingcomputer-executable instructions for a portable electronic device toperform a method, the method comprising: electronically pairing theportable electronic device with an on-board computer of a vehicle;wirelessly conducting a transaction between the portable electronicdevice and another computing device, wherein said another computingdevice is located external to the vehicle; and authenticating thetransaction by sending the another computing device authenticationinformation associated with the pairing of the portable electronicdevice with the on-board computer.
 8. The computer-readable data storagedevice of claim 7, wherein said electronically pairing compriseswirelessly pairing the portable electronic device with the on-boardcomputer.
 9. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 7,wherein the method further comprises generating the authenticationinformation based on information provided by each of the portableelectronic device and the on-board computer.
 10. The computer-readabledata storage device of claim 7, wherein said wirelessly conducting thetransaction comprises conducting the transaction with said anothercomputing device using a near-field communication (NFC) wirelessinterface.
 11. A computer-readable data storage device storingcomputer-executable instructions for an on-board computer of a vehicleto perform a method, the method comprising: electronically pairing theportable electronic device with an on-board computer of a vehicle;wirelessly conducting a transaction between the portable electronicdevice and another computing device, wherein said another computingdevice is located external to the vehicle; and authenticating thetransaction by sending the another computing device authenticationinformation associated with the pairing of the portable electronicdevice with the on-board computer.
 12. The computer-readable datastorage device of claim 11, wherein said electronically pairingcomprises wirelessly pairing the portable electronic device with theon-board computer.
 13. The computer-readable data storage device ofclaim 11, wherein the method further comprises generating theauthentication information based on information provided by each of theportable electronic device and the on-board computer.
 14. Thecomputer-readable data storage device of claim 11, wherein saidwirelessly conducting the transaction comprises conducting thetransaction with said another computing device using a near-fieldcommunication (NFC) wireless interface.